Niagara Falls

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Well after a gruelling bus trip we made it to Niagara and the station is in the middle of nowhere. A quick decision and we were in a taxi getting to our Hostel in the centre of town. Our Hosts are lovely, Patrick and Shelly are Vancouver natives but their passion for Niagara Falls and its surrounding attractions is infectious.

Even though it is early evening we head out to have my first glimpse of the famous waterfalls. Jay has travelled here before and he is just as excited to be doing this all over again and is one of the few places that he has visited twice on this journey. The falls don’t disappoint and I go snap happy with the camera and take bucket loads of photos even though I know we are coming back to look at them all day tomorrow. We’ve arrived smack bang on one of the busiest weekends of the year, the last long weekend of summer and it is packed.

The main drag of Niagara is like Las Vegas for kids. There are neon signs left right and centre advertising the attractions, from Rippley’s believe it or not, to Frankensville rides (complete with Frankenstein holding a burger above the Burger King shop) and food shops to make anyone trying to watch weight cringe with temptation, although looking around there are not too many people trying to be health conscious. Jay and I opted to have a Caesar salad (minus the bacon and cheese) and watch baseball while we waited till 10m and the fireworks over the falls.

The fireworks were pretty cool and reflect colour onto the falls and only happen Friday & Saturday nights. Every night the American Falls are lit up by powerful coloured lights that made them look far more spectacular and lasted longer to take the odd photo. After the fireworks had finished it was time to call it a night and head to bed.

On the advice of our guests we got an attraction pass that allowed us to jump queues and pre-pay the main things around Niagara so after a scrumptious breakfast of homemade blueberry muffins and fruit we set off for a jam packed day of waterfalls.

First on our list was the Maid of the Mist the company has been running these trips since 1846 and is the oldest privately owned company running tours in Niagara. As it was still early we were lucky that our boat wasn’t packed like sardines and had room to move and take photos. Upon boarding the boat you are handed plastic poncho’s that don’t look like much but they manage to keep most of you dry as the Maid takes you past the American Falls on the left and up into the Horseshoe Falls and you get absolutely drowned with the spray from the falls and the wash of the water over the edge of the boat. It’s loud, exhilarating and over way to soon.

From here it was a quick dry off and then a walk up to the side of the Horseshoe Falls to go and do a rather cool 4D movie, Niagara Fury that explains how the Falls came to be. Complete with moving floor, ice cold wind and water/rain splashing on you from above and below. The ride was all over in 10 minutes but good fun. From here we did the Journey Behind the Falls and got absolutely drenched at the first viewing platforms and then we entered a tunnel that took us behind the falls so we could watch the power of the water beating down from above.

After another dry out period and lunch we caught the shuttle bus to take us to the White Water Walk. This is where the river gets wild again with Class 6 rapids and again the Mother Nature at her best. Just before you make it out of the tunnel that leads you to a boardwalk along the river there is a tribute to all the idiots who have tried to survive going over the falls. The most successful method appears to be by barrel. The first person to attempt this was in 1901, a 63 year old school teacher who tucked herself into a barrel with her cat and survived. Many more have done this and most survived the barrel method but there have been some crazier attempt made that were not successful. Anyway, we are here to see the rapids and they are just magnificent and we sat hypnotised just watching the force of the water coming down the river and hitting the rocks.

After dragging ourselves from the White Water Walk we walked down to the Whirlpool section of the river which is really just and “elbow” in the river where it changes direction suddenly and there is a cable car that crosses over the top so you can get a view up the river and the rapids. We decided the cost wasn’t really value for money and caught the bus back to the hostel for a quiet read and chill out before heading back out for dinner.

Our last full day at Niagara and we teamed up with another couple from the hostel and shared a taxi down to Niagara on the Lake which is a quaint little town with the most beautiful gardens. From here we decided to check out some wineries and suss out just what’s so good about Ice Wine. Plenty! It is sweet and soft on the palette and you cannot get enough of it in a sample glass, so more wineries had to be visited. As it was such a busy weekend we couldn’t get bikes to hire so we left our name with a hire company and walked to the first two before backtracking to get some lunch. Whilst there our call came in they had bikes so we trundled back and hit the road by bike and had a ball.

With a day of riding around on bikes and in total about 5 wineries visited and a causal ride back by the river we returned out bikes and taxied back to the Hostel. Jay and I took care of some internet and then headed out to the Keg for what we are told the best steaks in town, being told that no reservation is required and that you must ask for a falls view seat we waited for 2 hours before giving up and saying just give us any seat as we were so hungry and it was now 10pm. Ohh boy, once you make a decision on just what sort of steak you want, if you want fries or baked potato, do you want to upgrade to include salad it was a minefield of choices that left us in deliberation for about 10 minutes. We had some inside information from Patrick and Shelley so finally made our choices remembered to ask for the 3 cheese butter for our fresh sour-dough bread and our meal was served. The salad was a meal in itself and when finished out came our steaks. Cooked to perfection and was mouth-wateringly delicious. It was our splurge night and we enjoyed every mouthful and struggled to finish the meal. Our host for the night was lovely and as it was so late tables by the window were freed up so we asked if we could have coffee by the window to finish the evening and spent 20 minutes or so just looking out the window to the falls.

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